Posted by Wayne Hammond on April 13, 1998 at 15:03:38:
Some readers of TARboard will be aware (perhaps from the most recent _Mixed Moss_) that I'm writing a bibliography of Ransome's works, to be published next year by St Paul's Bibliographies of Winchester, England, and Oak Knoll Press of New Castle, Delaware. I'm still trying to fill miscellaneous gaps of information, and hope that my fellow members of TARS will be able to help. If so, please respond to me by private e-mail, to 1) On the front flap of the dust-jacket of the Jonathan Cape, 1931 edition of _Swallows and Amazons_ (the first printing with Clifford Webb's illustrations), in the lower right corner there is a diagonal dashed line, below which, presumably, was the printed price. But all the copies of the jacket I've seen, or been told about, have the price clipped off. Does anyone have this jacket (on the 1931 printing _only_) with the price not cut off the flap? What does it say below the diagonal line? I imagine that it said '7s. 6d.', or '7_s._ 6_d. net_', or '7s. 6d. net each', or something like that, possibly with some italic characters. (I'm interested in how the type is set -- lower case, capitals, italics, etc. -- as well as what it says. The price was certainly seven shillings and sixpence.) 2) Does anyone have a copy of _Swallows and Amazons_, Jonathan Cape, 1938, the first printing to include Ransome's own illustrations? If so, would you be willing to lend it to me for a very brief time, all costs of registered airmail to be borne by me, so that I can write a bibliographical description of it? This is the only important edition of _S&A_ that I haven't been able to describe. 3) Does anyone have a paperback edition of _Swallows & Amazons_ published by Ace Books, New York, in 1978?
Wayne Hammond